Description

"Popeye" is one of, if not THE, most popular routes at The Pit. The bottom section, rated 5.9, is very popular with moderate climbers as a warm-up or beginning lead. The upper section (responsible for the 10d rating) isn't nearly as good and rarely gets done.

Take care when belaying a leader on this route as you could both take a heckuva fall if they pile off the starting moves before clipping the first bolt.

NOTE: The quality rating here refers soley to the lower 5.9 section of the route!

Location

Popeye is the left-most route that starts off the lower level of the Mall Wall. Super pocketed face.

Finally did the top part of this yesterday. It's a lot of fun and much different than the bottom, with cool stemming moves a lot less obvious than the bucket-hauling on the first "pitch." We ran the whole thing on a 60m rope and had a couple meters to spare, and surprisingly, drag wasn't too much of an issue. There is one runout on the upper section that's a little freaky since a fall would probably drop you straight onto a ledge, but the climbing was fairly easy in that section.

Love it. Climbed on a Wednesday and no one else at the pit at all. Huge run out top section below last bolt. There is a new bolt out left a few feet below the anchors, not needed and not sure why it is there.